Sound Change - Phonological Rules, Rule Orders & Relative Chronology (part 5 of 5)

Summary

This video explores sound changes in languages over time, focusing on sound laws and their application in historical linguistics. The speaker introduces Grim's Law, which explains the devoicing of voiced stops in Proto-Germanic languages, and other sound change types like lenition and dissimilation. The video also explains how linguists use rules to track sound changes, establishing relative chronology and relationships between rules, such as feeding, counterfeeding, bleeding, and counterbleeding orders. The presenter emphasizes the importance of understanding these rules to reconstruct language history and development.

Takeaways

• 😀 Sound laws describe consistent sound changes across languages, often named after their discoverers like Grimm's Law.
• 😀 Grimm's Law explains how voiced stops in Proto-Indo-European evolved into voiceless stops in Proto-Germanic languages.
• 😀 Sound laws involve changes like lenition, dissimilation, and other types of sound shifts in languages.
• 😀 Phonological rules outline the specifics of sound changes, indicating which sounds change, how they change, and under what conditions.
• 😀 Example: In Portuguese, the letter 's' becomes 'z' when situated between vowels, a change described by a phonological rule.
• 😀 Linguists use relative chronology to determine the order in which sound changes occurred in a language's history.
• 😀 In the example language X, the rule of N → M before a labial consonant happened after the deletion of unstressed 'i'.
• 😀 A 'feeding order' occurs when an earlier sound change creates an environment where a later sound change can apply.
• 😀 A 'bleeding order' occurs when an earlier change removes an environment needed for a subsequent change to apply.
• 😀 Counter-feeding and counter-bleeding orders occur when sound changes operate in reverse order, altering the expected outcomes.
• 😀 Stress shifts in language X influenced other phonological rules, as seen in the change of 'Aisa' to 'AFA' through a stress shift.

Q & A

What is a sound law in historical linguistics?

A sound law is a systematic pattern of sound changes in a language or across related languages. These laws are often named after the linguists who discovered or popularized them, such as Grimm's Law, and they describe regular sound shifts that occur over time in a language's development.

What does Grimm's Law specifically describe in terms of sound changes?

Grimm's Law describes a systematic sound change in Proto-Germanic, the ancestor of all Germanic languages. Specifically, it involves the devoicing of voiced stops. For example, the Proto-Indo-European root *gwen* (meaning 'woman') became *quin* in Proto-Germanic, and eventually the English cognate is 'queen'.

How are sound laws formulated in historical linguistics?

Sound laws are formulated as rules that specify which sounds change, into what they change, and the environments in which the changes occur. For example, in Portuguese, the letter 's' is pronounced as [z] between vowels, which is written as a rule in phonological notation.

What is the significance of rule order in understanding language evolution?

The order of sound changes is crucial because it helps establish a timeline for language development. Some sound changes depend on earlier changes to create the right environment for later changes to occur, while others may prevent subsequent changes from applying.

What is a feeding order in phonological change?

A feeding order occurs when an earlier sound change creates an environment that allows a later sound change to apply. For example, in language X, a rule deleting unstressed vowels made it possible for another rule to later change a consonant, as it created the right environment.

Can you explain a counterfeeding order with an example?

A counterfeeding order happens when an earlier rule removes or alters an environment that would have allowed a later rule to apply. For example, in language X, an early rule deleted the 'M' sound before a consonant, which prevented a later rule from changing the 'n' sound to 'M' in that context.

What is the concept of bleeding order in phonological change?

A bleeding order occurs when an earlier sound change removes an environment in which a later rule could apply, resulting in the later rule being ineffective. In the example from language X, an earlier rule deleted 'M' before a consonant, and this prevented a later rule from changing 'n' to 'M'.

What is a counterbleeding order and how does it work?

A counterbleeding order happens when a later rule creates an environment that allows an earlier rule to apply. For example, in language X, a new rule moving stress to the penultimate syllable created an environment where an earlier rule deleting unstressed vowels could take effect, resulting in sound changes that otherwise wouldn't have occurred.

Why is relative chronology important in the study of sound changes?

Relative chronology helps linguists determine the sequence of sound changes in a language's history. By understanding which changes occurred first, linguists can better understand the language's development and the interactions between various sound shifts.

How does the concept of 'stress shift' influence phonological rules?

Stress shift can influence phonological rules by creating new environments for other rules to apply. In language X, for example, a rule shifting stress to the penultimate syllable allowed a previous rule that deletes unstressed vowels to affect words in a way it wouldn't have otherwise, leading to different outcomes.